Lynne Stewart Being Moved to Maximum Security Prison

World Can’t Wait received this letter from the Lynne Stewart Defense Committee

Dear Friends, Please forward widely…

I just received a terribly sad one-sentence letter from Ralph Poynter, Lynne Stewart’s husband. Lynne will very be shortly (if not already) sent to a maximum security prison, location still unknown, but possibly in Texas.

Lynne had previously requested that her ten-year sentence be served at Danbury Federal Correction Institution, a minimum security prison, but with several amenities that make prison life more tolerable. Danbury was the place where the famous Hollywood Ten were incarcerated in the 1950s. But vindictive prison officials, utilizing the pretext that Lynne was (falsely) convicted of conspiracy to aid and abet terrorism, placed her in a terrible facility far away from her friends and family.

Lynne’s appeals of her conviction and sentence will continue to the U.S. Court of Appeals, the very court that previously, in essence, ordered Lynne’s sentence to be reviewed and extended. Lynne was originally sentenced to 28 months, only to have her sentence revisited by the same Judge John Koeltl. Judge Koeltl had originally ordered that Lynne serve a 28-month sentence. He undoubtedly bent to the pressures of his "superiors" and handed Lynne a terrible sentence of ten years, a term that Lynne, in poor health, will have a hard time serving. She has already been in prison for about one year and will likely receive an automatic "good behavior" sentence reduction of ten percent, making the date of her release some eight years from now.

Without doubt we must continue the fight for Lynne’s freedom and for her assignment to a prison that is the most conducive to Lynne’s comfort and well-being.

This will require some significant fund-raising to assist Ralph and Lynne’s family to make regular visits.

Please make your generous check payable to:

Lynne Stewart Defense Committee
1070 Dean Street
Brooklyn, New York 11216

Please send a note to me as well so I can keep in close touch regarding future developments.

I have enclosed a recent letter of solidarity that Lynne sent to a California meeting celebrating the life of Stanley "Tookie" Williams, whose horrific execution five years ago outraged social justice activists around the world.

In solidarity,

Jeff Mackler,West Coast Coordinator
Lynne Stewart Defense Committee

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